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Fine arts isn't what it used to be. The focus of the new Chairman is her own career advancement, not student well being. She overwhelmed a student facility with her own projects. Student complaints were ignored. I think that the real problem is that the school over-expanded. Student welfare seems to be bottom priority. A few teachers are outstanding, but there are too many lackluster classes.

All of my teachers have been really inspiring, all of my teachers have worked big in their fields or are doing so currently. They are really insightful and teach us what they KNOW we need to know to make it and market our selves after graduation, even before graduation. I learn a new skill every day I go. My freshman year was awful, my teachers were really arrogent and snotty, but this year they are totally hippy. They are more about you as a person and getting your work done non-half assed then getting things in on time. THEY WILL HELP YOU AND try to solve problems and let you know its not the end of the world. Which will help in your portfolio review, (can land you jobs) I meditate for an hour and a half in one class. my teachers are super liberal. I could make a book of quotes from my teachers and a make a million from it.

The thing I HATE THE MOST about SVA is the fact there is hardly any campus, which means being a commuter like me, it's really really hard to keep up with friends and be with it( I have no life) unless you live in sty-town or close to other students. living in NYC is really expensive, biggest turnoff. I'd love to have a campus life which is leaning me towards transferring, but the classes and teachers and school itself are truly really quite unique. There are also A LOT of koreans that take up most of your classes and dont socialize with anyone but other koreans.. so you really can't grow off your peers with conversation... just what they make visually..

The computer labs and printing is state of the art. and you can rent film and photography equipment. NO DINING HALL THE SAME DELI. if you attend sva you lose 15 pounds instead of gaining 15 pounds. FYI. I wish we could double major. But we have amazing liberal arts teachers. So cool. Take DiPalma for english. The people here are also like genuinely weird, unlike state art students who try too hard. You have to weed out the ones with mental problems. I've run into a lot of habitual liars and nutty ones. but its not hard to make friends. Sva isssss....different. its not easy, dont come here for an easy ride. MANY people I met my freshman year did not make it to second semester or to sophomore year.

Well, what is left to be said about this school that hasn't been said about diarrhea. I'll still throw my two cents in the basket, although there are a bunch of reviews here that hit the same points I still feel I should reinforce.

In short, if your goal in life is to make art, use the money you'd waste on SVA to buy some art history books, learn some history and theory, and just engage in your own practice. I CANNOT EXPRESS ENOUGH HOW MUCH I MEAN THIS! I WISH I HAD SOMEONE TELL ME THIS YEARS AGO!! SVA IS A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY, but I will explain...

Wasting thousands, to get a completely useless degree is insanity, that I had the unfortunate idea of participating in myself. You go to this school, deal with all the depressed rich kids(it's hard having money and sitting around making crummy paintings), arrogant (think they are famous) teachers who are in reality failures, shop techs in all departments are also failed artists with attitudes, humanities classes that are below high school level etc. all for a degree that is completely and utterly useless.

Try going to interviews, in the real world, to get yourself any kind of gainful employment with this degree, best of luck. No one is willing to help graduates either, everything in the environment revolves around a pseudo-wealthy group of children who do each other favors and tell each other how great they all are. Think I'm full of it? Go to the school and see it yourself.

I just saved you four years of learning all this the hard way, the EXPENSIVE way. Years later I've repaired my life, and my mind from the damage of the school and the people who work and attend it, and I have actually made myself a mufti-millionaire(no joke ha ha) though completely and totally unrelated to the school or anything having to do with it or my education. I had to rebuild one step at a time, and do it all on my own.

I now make art on my own time, and my own dime, for myself, and do what gives me satisfaction, not for the appearance or approval of vacant people.

If SVA taught me anything, its that the New York art world is an unbelievable mess of very affluent children, doing whatever they can to make their lives seem purposeful, and the majority of it has nothing to do with art, communicating ideas is completely secondary to being the latest and greatest nonsense to hit the market.(sidenote: if you are a mid-western or southern hipster, or even just some suburban kid who is the coolest kid at your particular middle of nowhere highschool, SVA is the best place for you to become the dirtiest preachiest most arrogant hipster, and gain that hipster stardom you've always desired. Seriously, come and move here and then tell people you meet you are "from" Brooklyn, just make sure the people you tell are other hipsters, and not any of us who are actually FROM here. All you dreams of being a vegan in the hottest band this week, who never showers and protests things that your parents make their money on will come true! You can act like trash, treat other people badly, and be the coolest kid to hit NYC. Just be careful, people on the fringes of your gentrification sprawl aren't too friendly to outsiders who drive up rent and cost of living prices, and they will rob you for your ipod and $5000 dollar track bike, but don't worry you can just go buy another.)Sorry for the personal rant, but if you come here, you will see exactly what I'm talking about on your first day.

Avoid at all costs would be my advice, as I said just take a 30k loan and use it to make a film, or a series of paintings, etc. Do your own thing, promote it if you want people to see it, and you will cut out 4 wasted years of garbage that somehow passes for "education".

Or even better alternative, go to business school, or some kind of educational pursuit that will fund your goals in art. Much better way to go, and there are a number of successful artists who have done this in the past.